Marked

Marked by Kristin and P.C. Cast, 2007 St. Martin's

     Zoey is just like any other sixteen-year-old high schooler; living in a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and dating her lifelong love the star of the football team, Heath. Life seems perfect. Until one day she begins to feel sick and passes out in the empty halls after school. A strange figure in the darkening world points at her, and when Zoey wakes up she has been Marked with the unfilled crescent moon of a vampyre fledgling.
     When Zoey goes home she is immediately blamed for her Change by her uber-religious parents and escapes to her grandmother's home rather than be taken to the anti-vampyre Elders of the People of Faith and whatever penance they may inflict. At her grandmother, Sylvia Redbird's lavender farm Zoey again passes out, but has a dream from the vampyre goddess Nyx giving her a particular mission. She encourages Zoey to remember that "Darkness does not always equate evil, Light does not always bring good."
     She awakens at the Tulsa House of Night, a boarding school where fledgling vampyres are mentored and surrounded by adult vampyres to help their bodies accept the Change. Zoey discovers that her mark has been filled in, unusual for a fledgling, and that she may change her name: she chooses her Cherokee Grandmother's maiden name becoming Zoey Redbird.
     Another fledgling, Aphrodite, takes Zoey to her room where she meets her new roommate and future best friend, Stevie Rae. She makes friends with Shaunee,  Erin, and Damien, friends of Stevie Rae's, and discovers Aphrodite has the power to see the future and is the High Priestess of the Dark Sons and Daughters, not to mention a stuck-up brat.
     Aphrodite and Zoey's new friends seem to be on opposite ends of a sort of feud, the elitist Dark Sons and Daughters on one end bullying the rest of the student population on the other. When Zoey is invited to join the group her friends encourage her to accept for insider information on the group. She does accept, but at the first ceremony Aphrodite gives Zoey fledgling blood in their wine, inciting a hunger strange for how powerful it is in such a young fledgling. Zoey flees, but finds her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend trying to break her out. She loses control and bites Heath, creating an Imprint and scaring Kayla away. When Heath finally does leave Erik Night, a fifth-former and one of the most popular guys at the House of Night, comforts Zoey and walks her back to her dorm.
     The next morning the headmistress, Neferet, explains an Imprint and moves Zoey into an upper-level sociology class, marveling at how powerful she is. Zoey is chosen by a cat, who she names Nala, and discovers she has affinities for each of the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Spirit--the first of any vampyre in history.  Her friends each have an affinity for one of the elements, too. At the Samhain celebration Zoey is invited back into the Dark Sons and Daughters and all goes according to plan, until Heath appears trying to take Zoey back. Aphrodite summons dark spirits who try to feast on his fresh blood, but Zoey, Stevie Rae, Erin, Shaunee, and Damien use their new-found abilities to save him.
     Neferet witnesses the entire debacle and transfers leadership of the Dark Sons and Daughters from Aphrodite to Zoey. Aphrodite is not pleased and threatens Zoey that it is not over. All appears to be going well and the new friends go about their lives without giving her claim much thought.
     Marked is the first in the House of Night Series and the first book co-written by the mother-daughter team: P.C. and Kristin Cast. It is written for a high-school audience, with some sexuality and language. The beginning of Zoey's journey is followed with the second novel: Betrayed.

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, 2010 Walker Books

     When Theresa Gray arrives in London after the death of her Aunt Harriet she expects to be met by her brother, Nathaniel. Instead she runs into the Dark Sisters, two warlock sisters who plunge Tessa into a world of demons, wizards, vampires, warlocks, and Shadowhunters.
     After six weeks of captivity, being forced to discover and learn how to control an unknown power at the hands of the Dark Sisters, Tessa is rescued by William Herondale and James Carstairs. She joins them at the Institute where she meets other Shadowhunters and discovers their mission as Nephilim: angels who keep the world of Downlanders separate from the human realm. No one knows who, or what, Tessa is but they do learn she is a Downlander.
     The Shadowhunters begin their search for Nathaniel, and Tessa begins her training with Will, Jem, and Jessie (another young Shadowhunter) in order to defend herself against the Magister, a criminal mastermind trying to harness her strange powers in the hope of controlling the world. Her feelings for Will grow and this strange young man who drives everyone away becomes a fascination.
     The group encounters strange clockwork devices that function as if they were human, and are to an extent--wrapped in human flesh. The leaders of the Institute, Charlotte and Henry come across a lead: the vampire de Quincey is the Magister and holds Nathaniel prisoner. When the Nephilim go undercover to check out the lead, de Quincey and his fellows drain a human, leading to the discovery of Nathaniel and a battle between the Shadowhunters and vampires.
     Will swallows vampire blood during the fight and, while he drinks holy water to cleanse himself, he and Tessa share their first kiss. Afterward, life goes on much as it has, however Will distances himself even further from Tessa. When she and Jem go on patrol, they run into an army of the clockwork devices and though they make it back to the Institute, Jem is injured. During his recovery, Jem reveals to Tessa his addiction to a demon drug that while it keeps him alive, only slows his death.
     After some trickery, Jessie and Tessa are left at the Institute with Nathaniel while the Magister marches his Clockwork Army on the building. The ensuing battle ends in many losses, both in people, assets, and innocent notions. When the Shadowhunters regroup at the Institute, the betrayal slices through the group, but they live to fight another day. Charlotte and Henry ask Tessa to stay, and despite misgivings she stays.
     Tessa's story includes romance, self discovery, and betrayal. Although she is only sixteen, Tessa must grow up quickly to survive the chaos that surrounds her life in London. Her friendships with Will and Jem help her through the changes, but there are still elements that Tessa must figure out for herself. It was written for an older group: fifteen or older, with some mature segments and themes.

Number the Stars

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, 1989 Houghton Mifflin, Co.

     When Hitler's Germany starts to take Danish Jews into custody, Annemarie Johansen and her family take in Annemarie's best friend Ellen Rosen when her family must go into hiding. Their hope is to pass Ellen off as Annemarie's older sister Lise, who was killed for her part in the Danish Resistance, until she can escape. Lise's fiance Peter, also part of the Resistance, helps the family to protect the Rosens and get them out of the country to Sweden, a refuge for Jews fleeing the Holocaust.
     Nazi soldiers come to their home and demand the Johansen family tell them where the Rosens have gone. They become suspicious when Annemarie and her sister have blonde hair and Ellen has dark brown, but Mr. Johansen shows the soldiers pictures with names and dates of three children--two blonde, one dark-haired. Though they are deflected the soldiers are not happy about it.
     The next day Ellen and Annemarie travel with Mrs. Johansen to Annemarie's Uncle Henrik's home on the shores of the North Sea. Mrs. Johansen explains they are going for an aunt's funeral, but Annemarie knows there is no such aunt and demands Uncle Henrik explain; he says it is easier to be brave when you don't know the whole truth.
     At the funeral ceremony, Nazi soldiers again arrive. When they demand to open the casket Annemarie's mother tells them a story about the aunt dying of typhus: the country doctor warned that everyone would contract the disease if the casket were opened. Her explanation angers the soldiers, but they leave. Afterward the casket is opened and the many Jewish families that had attended are given supplies to last until they arrive in Sweden.
     The next morning Ellen goes with Uncle Henrik to meet up with her family and commence their escape. But Mrs. Johansen notices that Mr. Rosen dropped an important package on his way down the stairs, she gives it to Annemarie in a basket of food and sends her hurrying down to the docks. On her way she is stopped by more Nazi soldiers who throw the food about and find the package, a handkerchief, they send her on her way and Annemarie gets to Uncle Henrik's boat in time to give it to him.
     When Uncle Henrik returns he explains why the handkerchief was important, and the Johansens return home to Copenhagen. After the war, Annemarie learns that her sister was intentionally killed by the Nazis, and that Peter has also been killed. The Jews return home to discover their neighbors have taken care of their shops and homes, awaiting their return. Ellen and her family return and Annemarie has her Star of David necklace repaired after the Nazi invasion of their apartment caused her to break it.
     This story is one of the best-selling children's stories of the last twenty years; the friendship between Ellen and Annemarie as well as the willingness of the Danish people to put their lives at risk to help their neighbors shows an inspiring united front against the German machine of World War II. Number the Stars's title refers to both Ellen's Star of David and a biblical passage in which God has numbered the stars and knows the name of each one--just as he knows the name and heart of each human. Written to be understood by a younger readership, some of the gruesome details of the war are more suited to older elementary and middle school readers. Still, it is a tale that shows the ingenuity of human spirit and how a nation rose against oppression in favor of their own people.

A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, 1962 Farrar, Straus & Giroux

     Margaret Murry is known as Meg by her family. Though she is brilliant at math, Meg is the average one in a family of geniuses: her ten-year-old twin brothers Sandy and Dennys are brilliant with sports and most things mechanical; the youngest brother, Charles Wallace, only began speaking at four years old (though he began speaking in complete sentences with an extensive vocabulary immediately) and at five he has an uncanny ability to telepathically read others' thoughts and emotions; her mother is a beauty and a microbiologist working with scientific concepts Meg cannot seem to grasp, but that Charles Wallace easily explains; Meg's father is a physicist working with the government on a project called a tesseract. At thirteen Meg constantly compares herself to her brilliant and beautiful mother and the comparison leads to feelings of inferiority. When Meg meets Calvin O'Keefe, a fourteen-year-old high school junior, and the two begin to develop a deep and lasting relationship.
     When Meg's father goes missing, she has hope that he'll return, but the fear that he has left the family intentionally wreaks havoc on her emotional stability. One day, during a storm Mrs. Whatsit comes to the Murry home and Charles Wallace announces it time to go on a quest in search of their father. The children go out into the nearby woodland, meet Calvin, and encounter Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which. The three women are angelic beings with vast knowledge of the Black Thing who help Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin in their search for Mr. Murry.
     The Mrs. "W"s use the tesseract to move the three children through space from earth to Uriel, a planet filled with centaur-like creatures who live in a state of light and love. It is there that the three children are first hear about the Black Thing and its mission to take over the Universe. They next travel by tesseract to the land of the "Happy Medium", she looks into her crystal ball and shows the fight against the Dark Thing on earth, how figures throughout history have fought against it, and how the tide may turn.
     The next stop is the planet Comazotz, a planet dominated by the Black Thing. The people are robotic and controlled by a hive-mind called "IT". When the children encounter the embodiment of IT, it convinces Charles Wallace to look into his eyes and become a vessel for the creature. He then leads his sister and her friend to the place where Mr. Murry is held captive, then to the place where IT was centralized. The concentrated power of Comazotz's telepathic ruler nearly takes over Meg and Calvin as it had Charles Wallace, but Mr. Murry is able to transport the children from Comazotz in time.
     Unfortunately, Mr. Murry doesn't know how to protect the children as they travel through the Black Thing and Meg nearly dies. When they arrive in Ixchel, a neighboring planet, the local population helps to save and heal her. The trio of Ws appears and task Meg with rescuing her brother from the Black Thing. When Meg, Calvin, Charles Wallace, and Mr. Murry return home things are forever changed.
     When A Wrinkle in Time first went to publishers, many editors were hesitant about publishing a book that so obviously dealt with issues of good and evil, with a significant emphasis on religion. While a younger readership might skim over the blatant Christianity, older readers catch the allusions beyond L'Engle's text. The story is captivating and gives a more liberal take on the traditional Christian discourse. A good aged audience is twelve years or older.

City of Bones

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, 2007 Margaret K. McElderry

     Clary Fray witnesses three mysterious teens killing a boy who turns into a pile of dust in an exclusive New York City nightclub, Pandemonium. When Jace, one of the three, appears again right before Clary's mom vanishes she clings to the mysterious boy and his friends. Clary discovers that the three are Shadowhunters: demon hunting half-angels fighting in the age-old inter-dimensional battle for humanity's survival. She joins the trio in their fight, and receiving their assistance in the search for her mother.
     Along the way, Clary discovers that her mother isn't the artist she'd always thought: Jocelyn Fray is a Shadowhunter too! Dealing with this revelation is a battle for Clary, but the revelation that her mother had taken her to a warlock to hide her memories behind a glamour throws her into the realization that her world has never been as she remembered it, and pushes her even faster along the road to join the Shadowhunters herself.
     After an encounter with a Ravener demon, Clary is taken to the Shadowhunters' Institute to recover. She spends three days in a coma, and wakes up to find her mother kidnapped by the sinister Valentine, a Shadowhunter who lead a damaging uprising and was thought to have vanished fifteen years before. He has reappeared and taken Jocelyn with the hope that she will deliver the Mortal Cup (the cup the angel Raziel used to create Shadowhunters, and gave to them to replenish the ranks). Valentine's plan to use the Cup to create a Shadowhunter army and wipe out the Downworlder population, making Earth "pure" again, and in the process killing thousands of people.
     Clary and her new friends team up with her childhood friend Simon to find the Mortal Cup before Valentine can, and keep him from getting his hands on it. They succeed, but when they are betrayed by Hodge, a member of Valentine's Circle and the children's tutor, Valentine takes both Jace and the Cup from the Institute. Clary cannot just sit and let Valentine take them, she enlists the aid of Luke--a former Shadowhunter turned Werewolf--and his pack to find Valentine and bring Jace back.
     At the culmination of the battle between Valentine's Forsworn and Luke's Werewolves Clary and Jace learn some startling truths about their lives and their family. Valentine manages to escape with the Mortal Cup, but Jace returns to the Institute and Jocelyn is rescued, leaving the battle to continue another day.
     Fifteen-year-old Clarissa Fray learns her world has never been what it seems, nor has her life been what she understood, but rather than falling into self-pity and allowing it to bring her down, Clary fights for her family and new friends. She grabs hold of the changing world around her and finds her place in it. The story is aimed toward middle school and high schoolers, but is still enjoyable for an older readership.

Afterlife

Afterlife by Claudia Gray, 2011 Harper Collins

     Bianca has died. Her new status as a Wraith is confusing and the draw to leave her life is a constant pull, but Lucas has died too. When Lucas' worst nightmare comes true, Bianca is the only thing keeping him from losing control and the animosity between vampires and wraiths isn't going to keep them apart.
     But Lucas' bloodthirst is stronger than either of them could have anticipated. The only place to go is Evernight Academy, risking the perils that stalk those hallways. Lucas, Bianca, and their friends discovered, in a previous story, that Mrs. Bethany allowed specific humans to enter the school because they had lived haunted lives, and the wraiths followed them to Evernight only to be trapped by Mrs. Bethany.
     Bianca and Lucas carve out a corner of the school where they could meet with friends and plan a way to make the academy safe for Bianca to roam. They conquered the challenge of the traps, and worked toward understanding why Mrs. Bethany drew the wraiths to Evernight. While the vampires try to control Lucas' bloodthirst, Bianca tries to understand Christopher--the wraith who seems to lead the others--and the power he wields.
     After many challenges to their relationship and their very existences, Lucas and Bianca help to break down barriers between the vampires and wraiths, as well as the undead and humans. All while maintaining their relationship and fighting for each other. In the final segment of the Evernight series, Lucas and Bianca are finally able to be together without the prejudices of their world trying to separate them. The story is accessible and concludes the series with the push that began Evernight.